I ran my hands along the old clapboard. Is it here? Maybe it does feel different in this spot. Like fragile threads—like thin, cold air—
If I was wrong, I would be caught, but by now I wasn’t thinking. I was just shivering and going through the motions. I knew I had to just forget about Mom dying, about Carrie’s face, about the baby sister I would never know. All I dared to remember was Dad’s solemn assertion that I had to go, and that Mom had not been speaking some delusion as she died. They really believed Father Joshua meant to kill me.
Me…
How could I be special? I’d never done anything exceptional; I wasn’t the best cook or seamstress, or the prettiest or tidiest, and I didn’t even make the best healing poultices. I was a little bit rebellious, but not even exceptionally rebellious.
Maybe there is more out there…like in a book. Maybe the thing I’m meant to do or be is something I’ve never even considered…
I hitched up my skirts, stepped up onto the edge of the fence and climbed over, easily as any child.
Then I started putting distance between me and the village. My shoes crunched on the first autumn leaves to fall, the September leaves that were in a hurry. They made me cringe with every noisy step. The woods were noisy anyway with the din of a night forest—bugs and frogs and mysterious rustlings. As I walked farther from the village, the darkness quickly started to swallow me up. The village was surrounded by forest on every side except for the road. I would get lost in no time unless I followed the road, but if I followed the road, I would be found, and that was surely worse.
Is it, though?
I had never felt so alone in all my life. I could still see the lights of my home behind me, but it was far enough away that it felt like looking at another world. I opened the satchel and felt my way through the contents. It was too dark to see. A thick, warm sweater. A thermos, sloshing with liquid. Bags with snacks—probably jerky and nuts. A first aid kit. Very little else.
I didn’t even have the wand, because that would let Father Joshua track me, but I felt its absence. That wand belonged to me. He had no right to it.
As far as I knew, we didn’t own any flashlights, just lanterns, so it was no surprise when I didn’t find one, but I yearned for it.
I wasn’t sure how much farther I could go in such profound darkness, but I still didn’t want to be this close to the village, so I kept picking my way forward, feeling my way with my feet. I broke a dead branch off a tree to clear for spiderwebs. In this way, I inched through the forest until I could no longer see the lights of the village at all.
I wondered if it could be possible that Dad would just send me out to die alone instead of at Father Joshua’s hands. Would he do that to me, like turning out a beloved pet? Would I prefer it that way?
No, I thought. I’m not going to die. Even if I have to survive alone in these woods. I’m still a witch. I will use whatever magic I have to find water and catch food.
That was when I heard a loud rustle above me in the trees.
“There she is.” A male voice above me, but it traveled down, soft with mischief.
“Yeah, I see her.”
Two men? I looked up behind me and saw movement in the trees. Bodies shifted, and I thought—no, it was three. Three big, adult men had climbed these trees and were waiting for me.
One of them dropped down, hitting the leaves with surprisingly little noise. He sniffed the air. “My god, I can hardly believe you’re real.” I saw white fangs gleam in a sliver of moonlight that broke through the tree cover. “I’ll try to contain myself but I can’t make any promises.”
I screamed, and I ran.
Vampires.
A whole clan of them.
The other two immediately dropped from the trees and they all pursued. I tore through the woods, feeling myself pricked and scraped as branches and brambles snagged my clothes and smacked my face, but I kept running for all I was worth.
Oh, Dad, you were sorely mistaken. You were trying to save me from Father Joshua and you sent me to a fate much worse!
I knew little of vampires, but I knew enough. They would drink my blood in turns and use me in other ways no better than Father Joshua, and then they would kill me when they tired of the sport. Their venom contained an aphrodisiac to force me into submission, while they were so physically strong that I could never have escaped.
I could hear them just behind me, getting closer and closer. They didn’t have to breathe, so my gasping and panic was loud over the sound of their feet.
“Look at her run,” one of them said, with some admiration.
A hand snatched out and grabbed me, sweeping me into the arms of a tall, blonde man. I’m sure he would have been considered a perfect specimen of manhood to normal people in normal circumstances, but I wasn’t inclined to admire him. He tore the cap off my head and removed the pins, letting my red hair fall past my waist, and his fingers gripped me even tighter as he growled with satisfaction.
“Look at that. Like the first time we met, but your hair has turned to flame. You’ve never been—so yourself—my Tulip.”
I fought, pushing him away and ducking under his arm. He tore my blouse open and swept blouse and sweater both off of me, and then he licked my neck.
“No!” I screamed like a wildcat, scratching him with my nails.
I broke free, or—I guessed—he let me break free. I started running again, hearing a river in the distance now. I would have to be careful not to blunder down a riverbank. I was praying to the Ethereals to grant me mercy, to save me from these Sinistral beings, even as I wondered if the blessed spirits cared about me at all. I was only wearing a bra and skirt now, but I had kept hold of the satchel. I was sweaty from running and didn’t feel the cold.
“Should I rope her?” one of them asked.
The third one laughed drily. “Thom, not everything has to be a circus.”
“You two won’t lay a hand on her yet.”
Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
I heard the river growing louder and soon I was at a bank, finding a peaceful, rocky Pennsylvania creek running slow beneath me. I skidded down the bank, half-falling, and then I plunged myself into the water.
“Oh—shit—no,” one of the guys yelled, jumping down.
“Now can I get her?”
“No.” The blonde man leapt ahead of him and shoved him back, putting himself back at the front of the pack.
The cold shocked me and it was deeper and faster than it looked. I was immediately flailing to keep my head above water, trying to fight the current so I wouldn’t get slammed into a rock. There was a fallen tree across the water and a man in black—a fourth man—dashed out onto the tree and caught me easily as the river carried me forward.
He whipped a blanket around me, and looked me over, holding the blanket at both ends to keep me close. He tsked, and said with a British accent, “You’re safe now, pet.”
“Are you—with them—?”
Maybe this man was my true savior. He definitely had a forbidding aspect, with dark hair and dark eyes, and sort of craggy and dour features that were handsome but also made his age difficult to guess. It seemed quite possible he looked old for twenty-five and also possible he was a very attractive fifty. He was wearing a black suit, a little old-fashioned in its cut, even for a warlock.
The blonde man had made a dash down the bank to meet us.
“She’s mine, Silvus,” he said. “There will be hell to pay if you steal this moment from me.”
“I’m afraid so.” The dark haired man answered my question with a faint sigh. “We are your clan and you are our thrall, and now that we have you, you’re here to stay, but I will make sure he goes gently tonight.”
There was really no mistaking what he meant. The blonde man’s eyes never left me. He looked haunted—consumed by the sight of me. And I knew what vampires wanted. They were animals. Monsters.
“Oh—please—no…” My voice and my strength both start
ed to fail me, and I started shivering all over, but there was no body heat coming from the men who held me. He picked me up in his arms and started carrying me, and I shut my eyes. All I could pray for now was that it wouldn’t hurt too much, and my death would come quickly.
Chapter Eleven
Silvus
“I thought we had agreed not to chase her,” I said, having put the girl to sleep with a quick spell. She hardly needed a spell, as exhausted as she was. “You all lost your minds back there.”
Rayner wouldn’t take her eyes off her for a moment. “That chase brought her to life,” he said. “It shows her right away that she is mine.”
“I reckon she likes it more than she says,” Thom said, leaning in the doorframe, thumbs hooked in his jeans pockets. Thom never changed a bit except to lean even harder into his persona. “Women are like that. Show me a woman who wants what she says she wants and I’ll show you a glacier in hell.”
“But it’s all right that you have a gentle heart, Silvus,” Rayner said. “Someone has to keep watch over our moral compass—I suppose.”
“We’re vampires,” Jie said, like that was enough of an excuse for anything, and maybe it was.
Certainly, I didn’t have it in me to protest much these days. We had been searching for our beloved for so long, and as the only warlock in the group, the rest of the clan looked to me and me alone to hunt her and find her. For years I had been trying to fend off their desperate questions. She had never been so difficult to locate before, not in five hundred years. I had started to worry that maybe the worst had happened and she was not going to reincarnate again.
Rayner was right. She had never looked more like Lisbeth, the girl he first fell in love with. Although Jie, Thom and I had never known the original incarnation, we had seen her in Rayner’s memories, which we inherited as he turned us into vampires. She had long, thick hair of a more scarlet shade than in her prior lives, but the fair, northern European skin was just the same as the delicate beauty of Lisbeth. Hopefully in this modern era, she would not meet the same early death as the first. I thought that would break my sire at this point. Rayner needed a good long time with her before enduring another goodbye.
Rayner sat down next to her and just looked at her in fond silence for several long moments, a silence we all respected and a fondness we all shared.
Rayner had brought us all into this clan with one purpose—to help him find this girl, and share in her love. When I first met him, I thought he was an ass, but I soon realized that no one had ever loved a woman more than he loved her.
He unfastened her bra and tossed it at Thom, followed by the wet skirt. Thom was already holding out a hand to catch that too. Wet shoes and socks followed.
“There is no beauty in these garments,” Rayner said. “She looks like a peasant. An English peasant,” he added. We had a longstanding friendly rivalry, English versus Dutch, each of us swearing that we had superior food, goods and Navy, although the point was somewhat moot nowadays. Well, we could still pass time arguing over ships that had sunk four hundred years ago and commanders who were nothing but crumbling bones.
“It was a wizard colony,” I said. “They don’t always dress with the times.”
She was nearly naked now, with the most beautiful unblemished skin and small round breasts. She looked very much like she needed more food. Rayner leaned over her, about to ravish her as she was, taking one breast into his hand and wetting his lips, before I intervened.
“The sleep spell wasn’t that strong,” I said. “And I don’t think she is ready to appreciate such a wakeup as that. Get ahold of yourself.”
“You can be a little patient now, can’t you?” Thomas said, sauntering over to pull him off her. “You always said the waiting’s the best part.”
Rayner shook him off. “I wish I hadn’t. The waiting has gone on far too long. I still don’t understand how it was that you couldn’t find her, Silvus.”
“As I said, they must have had her concealed.”
“But why? They knew we would come for her?”
“They must have.”
Rayner frowned and then waved a hand. “Ready her for me as I like, Silvus. You can calm her down a bit for me. I’ll have a drink and make up the bed chamber and then I will not wait one moment longer.”
“You’d better be gentle,” Jie said. “Don’t scare her off.”
“Or wear her out,” Thomas added.
“Thomas and I are tired of each other,” Jie said.
“That ain’t nice,” Thomas said. “I never get tired of you.”
“You never get tired of anyone,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “I’m sure the only reason Jie dallies with you is to spare the local livestock. Why don’t the two of you make some dinner for the lady and I will do my best to prepare her for the night ahead.”
Chapter Twelve
Alissa
“Time to wake up, pet.”
The hand on my shoulder was gentle, and so was the voice, but there was a deep level of possession to it as well. The voice was not worried I would escape or struggle. That voice knew it had me.
I woke with a start, my eyes flying open to meet my ageless captor, and I immediately tried to struggle away from him. His fingers dug.
“You won’t fight for long,” he said. “You are ours.”
“No—I’m not anyone’s! Please…”
He ran his tongue over his teeth, feeling fangs that I had not seen until now, not that it was any surprise. I was in the hands of a vampire clan. He shrugged just a little. “Sorry about that. I try not to seem too eager, but my body knows no such subtlety.” His dusky whisper, kissed with a distinguished British accent, might have enticed me—in a different situation.
“My name is Silvus,” he said. “I am the clan’s second, and the only warlock.”
“Second?”
“The sire of our clan is Rayner van der Berg,” he said. “You are his lover, and have been, since he was a human man.”
“I’m only eighteen.”
“None of us are really ‘only’ anything,” Silvus said briskly. “How old is a soul? Yours is at least five hundred. At that time, you were Lisbeth, the daughter of a Dutch merchant. You were in love with a young man named Rayner. I will let him tell you the story, although he might not talk much yet. In short, Rayner was turned into a vampire, but it didn’t diminish the passion between you. In fact, I suspect it strengthened it. He brought you to England to live as man and wife, primarily because there was a very strong vampire community in London. Unfortunately, you died of the plague, as nearly everyone did at the time it seemed, and that was when I entered the picture. Rayner sought out a warlock’s aid to see if your soul had been reborn. The forbidden spell was very difficult to master, but in the end, I found you in the French countryside. And thus the cycle that has haunted us began. Whenever you die, we find you.”
I clutched my head. “So…you’re saying I’ve been reincarnated over and over and you keep hunting me down?”
“Yes.”
“Have I ever refused?”
“At first, you are always reluctant.”
“But you intend to wear me down?” I was trying to keep my panic at bay enough to ask questions. “I know—vampires—your venom is an aphrodisiac, so I guess you can drug me enough not to fight, but that doesn’t mean I love Rayner. I definitely do not and I don’t think what he feels for me is love at all. He chased me and tore off my clothes. It sounds more like obsession.”
“Oh, yes. It is that,” Silvus said. “If nothing else, it is that.”
My mouth flapped open and closed as I realized Silvus, despite a certain level of gentlemanly behavior compared to the others, was not going to make any excuses nor apologize for Rayner.
The plague. When was that? 1600s maybe? So Silvus himself was four hundred years old. No wonder he was so calm. No wonder he didn’t seem to truly care. I was dealing with immortals and his fangs were out because he smelled my blood.
; I could never let my guard down.
“Rayner has walked this earth for centuries and you are the thing that keeps him human,” Silvus said. “You are what keeps him from madness and darkness. We need you, dearest. You are the only woman who tames our wicked ways…”
“I’m not your dearest. I’m sure I can’t keep anyone from darkness, and—it doesn’t sound fair that I have to. You shouldn’t be able to chase me down from life to life!”
“I know.” Silvus smiled, cold and handsome. “That’s why the spell is forbidden.”
“It doesn’t bother you at all, then?”
“It did, very much, at first. But then something happened.”
“What is that?”
“I fell in love with you as deeply as Rayner. With your soul. Your spirit. Before I ready you for him, let me tell you this. All of our lives rotate around you. We are the moons of your planet. It is our greatest delight to make you happy. Whatever you want, we will give it to you. When you wanted to read, we taught you and we bought you a library full of books. When you wanted a courtyard garden like the one at your childhood home, Rayner spent your entire life digging and planting and tearing it all up again whenever it wasn’t right. When you wanted to see the ocean, we took you straight to San Francisco to settle. We were quite ahead of the curve,” Silvus said wryly. “You were a boy that time. We must have been some of the first homosexuals in Haight-Ashbury.”
“I was a boy!? And Rayner still wanted me?”
“He was shocked.” Silvus chuckled faintly. “But he still wouldn’t let a one of us have you first. Although Thom did break the ice a bit.”
“What did I say that time?”
Silvus just gave me an enigmatic look that said it all. I must have been horrified. Had I ever really loved these men at all?
“We don’t care what age you are,” Silvus said, “or what bits you have. When you were Marguerite, you lived to be almost eighty years old, but when you spend every day with a person you hardly notice that your young wife has somehow become an old woman. The moments blink by and even after you were too frail to give us your body, we clung to you. There is nothing we love more than to find you, and nothing we dread more than your death. You passed away in Rayner’s arms and he held you until you were cold…”
Take Me Slowly (Forever in Their Thrall Book 1) Page 7
